Some Things Never Die
by Moon Faery
Summary: A look at Heero and Duo's life, from marriage to the grave.


Title: Some Things Never Die 1/1  
Series: Gundam Wing  
Genre: Romance  
Rated: G  
Pairings: 1x2  
Spoilers: None, I think  
  
Warnings: Because we all have different opinions of the true nature of the GW Universe, AU. OOC for the same reason, Yaoi, Slight Supernatural Hints, Death.  
  
By Moon Faery  
  
  
Disclaimer: A statement created solely to save one's hide from becoming lawn for the proverbial mower. I do not own Gundam Wing. However, this story line and plot are MINE. (holds fic close to her) Grrrr....  
  
  
Author's Notes: I've gotta thank whoever does that song 'Love Will' for this fic. It made my muse smack me with a shoe. Well, after I got over crying. It's not really a songfic, and there's no real plot, but I just love doing 'Love that lasts forever' fics like thins. ^-^v Enjoy!   
  
Translations:   
Aishiteru: I love you  
Kami: God(s)  
Shinigami: The God of Death  
Shinigami no Tenshi: Angel of the God of Death  
  
  
***(AC 201)***  
  
  
Duo Maxwell looked up at the man he was pledging his heart to, violet eyes shining in the dim light of the nearly empty chapel. His heart twisted slightly with longing, both for his soon-to-be husband and his friends who hadn't been informed of the ceremony. The marriage was destined never to be entered into any registry or government files. Duo hated that, but accepted it as necessary.  
  
Roughly a year ago, right before the six-year anniversary of the White Fang Incident, the Doctors had decided that their proteges were theirs to play with as they please. And play they did, doing everything in their power to make the young men who had saved the world miserable. There was no doubt that they would use the marriage as yet another way to keep themselves entertained.  
  
So, because of this, Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy were joining their souls in (un)holy matrimony with none but each other and the priest the wiser for it.  
  
"Do you, Heero Yuy, take this man, Duo Maxwell, as your wedded husband, to have and to hold, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health until..." The priest, a young man with only a hint of a very dark beard, paused, eyebrows quirking at the text. "Until circumstances drag you away from each other kicking and screaming?"  
  
Heero nodded, cobalt eyes burning with an intensity that sent shivers down Duo's spine. " I do," he whispered, voice soft and as thick with emotion as it ever got.  
  
The question was repeated to Duo, sans the hesitation, and the retired Shinigami nodded so hard that it made the long, silky waves of his chestnut hair dance across his shoulders. A few white, lavender and blue flowers fell from his wreath to the ground. "Forever." He nearly choked, but smiled brightly as the tears trailed glittering trails down his cheeks, reflecting the gentle gold of the candlelight.  
  
"I pronounce you married." The priest eyes them both, a grin stretching his lips. "You may now kiss." As Heero and Duo began what turned out to be a prolonged game of tonsil hockey, the young holy man muttered under his breath, "Like you've been wanting to do since the ceremony began." He needn't have worried about the volume; Heero and Duo had far more important things on their minds.  
  
***(One Year Later)***  
  
Duo Maxwell-Yuy slunk lower in his seat, leaving a small corner of his mind on auto-pilot. If asked by his college professors, he would be able to repeat anything they had said during the lesson verbatim, which was the only reason he was allowed to stare at the ceiling during Advanced Mechanical Nuclear Physics. All of his professors had learned long ago the futility of trying to stop him.  
  
To all in the room, it appeared that he was counting the pinholes in the ceiling tiles, but his mind was actually millions of miles farther than that. In his mind's eye was on a dark-haired young man with searing ultramarine eyes and a heart that- to Duo- was more precious than platinum and still snowy white despite blood stains from being a soldier. A man who, on Earth, was most likely sitting at his laptop, planning yet another mission to save that fragile peace that they all had fought and nearly died for.  
  
A man who had stolen his braided heart with a glare and a death threat.  
  
Yes, it was true. Duo hated that laptop and the missions it brought with an intensity that made even Kami Himself tremble in fear.  
  
"Package for Duo Maxwell."  
  
The sound, unexpected as it was, made Duo reach for his gun in its shoulder holster beneath his jacket. Scanning the room for the voice that had brought him out of his thoughts, amethyst eyes finally rested on a youth in a dark blue uniform, holding a long, thin box.  
  
"I'm Duo," he answered, shifting in his chair to hide the movement as his hand dropped from his gun.  
  
"Now, is this really necessa-" the professor began to protest, mouth turned sharply down.  
  
"Yes'm," the delivery boy answered, dodging his way through the desks to reach Duo with the grace of a dancer. "Orders are orders." Duo saw, now that he was looking, a shock of auburn bangs falling over very green eyes. The young man finally reached Duo's desk and placed the box and a clipboard on it, winking as he passed the ex-pilot a pen. "Sign please."  
  
Duo grinned and wrote, "Thanks, Clown-boy," instead of his name. Trowa's eyes danced, but he picked up the clipboard and sailed off silently.  
  
The box sat starkly in Duo's desk, plain white with only a black silk ribbon to adorn it. The card read, in kanji it had taken him forever to learn from Heero, "To Shinigami, From Shinigami no Tenshi." The braided man grinned.  
  
'So, Heero sent me a present?'  
  
"Who's it from?" a girl next to him asked, trying to see the card over his shoulder.  
  
Duo just shrugged. "It isn't in English," was all he said, apologizing silently for the near-lie.  
  
Feminine cries of 'open it!' began around him. Strangely enough, Duo was surrounded by women, three desks deep in all directions. The same thing happened to Heero in any 'choose your own desk' setting, and neither had ever managed to explain the phenomenon.  
  
Without even glancing at the teacher for permission, Duo pulled the ribbon off his package and stuffed it in his pocket, hoping absently that it wouldn't get wrinkled. Eyes never lifting from his task, Duo slowly began to slide off the lid. Around him, the voices grew silent as everyone craned their necks to watch as he opened the box.  
  
Inside, yards of black, violet and deep blue silk were very carefully folded around a long, thin object. Duo's lips frowned slightly in concentration as he unwrapped the silk, taking extra care for the unknown gift within. At the first sight of what lay inside the wrappings, Duo's hands halted, trembling with emotion even as his violet eyes began to fill with tears.  
  
Four long-stem roses lay within, each twining carefully around the others in a glory of deepest crimson red, black, blue, and dark purple beauty, matching the silk so perfectly that it was an effort to see the blooms against the cloth. Strewn around and under them were white rose petals and cherry blossoms. Beneath the flowers was yet another card, this one in English. It simply read, "I love you."  
  
A romantic, and satisfied, 'oooooh,' went up around Duo as all of the girls surrounding him leaned back in their chairs with dreamy smiles and sighed in unison.  
  
"Mr. Maxwell, do you know who sent you that gift?" the professor asked, eyes softened slightly in the face of romance, as all women seemed to do. Her step was less authoritarian than usual as she walked over to peer at the roses, a smile resting strangely on her usually pinched lips.  
  
Duo looked up at her, his own grin less manic than usual. "I have some idea," he answered, a single tear dripping unnoticed down his cheek.  
  
'Thank you, Heero. I love you too.'  
  
***(Seventy-three years later)***  
  
Duo sat in the cold, hard chair provided by the hospital, holding a hand that, even in old age, was still as strong as it had been in youth. But it was cold, almost as cold as the chair. Only the faint flicker of a pulse against his fingertips assured Duo that Heero was still hanging on. No matter what the machines and doctors might say, he knew that he would feel Heero go long before any of them would.  
  
Heero looked up at his husband, eyes still holding the spark that showed he was fighting what they both knew was inevitable. His hair was thinner than it had been and graying a bit, and several fine wrinkles showed around his mouth and eyes, but modern medicine had done wonders for the youthful looks of what had once been a supremely healthful man. Duo also retained most of his youth, age showing in the deeper laugh lines on his face, and the silver streaks through his now floor-dragging braid.  
  
"Duo?" Heero asked, voice weak from the cancer he was battling.  
  
"Yes?" Duo replied, bending lower to hear his lovers words.  
  
"I have to go now," came the soft, almost non-existent answer.  
  
Duo's grip tightened on Heero's hand, but he didn't argue. "I'll miss you, Love," he whispered, lips brushing Heero's lightly before he crawled into the hospital bed with his husband, cradling him gently in his arms.  
  
Heero sighed, feeling safe. He didn't really care about dying; he'd been threatened with death for most of his young life. He just didn't want to leave Duo.  
  
"Aishiteru, Duo," he muttered, slipping lower into the other's embrace. His eyes slipped slowly closed, and his heartbeat began to falter.  
  
"Aishiteru, Heero."  
  
For several minutes, there were no sounds in the small, private hospital room save for those of two people breathing. Eventually, one set of steady noises faded, then stopped entirely.  
  
Duo Maxwell-Yuy stood, letting the body of his husband slip to the bed as the sound of a flat-line hit his ears harshly. Without a single glance as the empty shell on the bed that had once been Heero Yuy, he walked from the room, unconsciously using stealth skills he had learned in the war to evade doctors and orderlies. No tears ran down his cheeks, no was the brightness of his violet gaze in any way dimmed.  
  
Only one nurse saw him leave the hospital, and the only thing she really noticed that was odd about figure as he passed through the exit doors was the almost knowing smile on his wide lipped mouth.  
  
***  
  
A week later, a double obituary was printed in newspapers Sphere-wide, and a special edition was sent to several people specifically, including the former Vice Minister Relena Peacecraft-Dorlian-Baker and her family, Mr. Quatre Reberba Winner and his semi-permanent houseguest Trowa Barton, and many others around the Sphere. Each small package included the newspaper, a typed note giving only a page number, a single cross pendant, and a copy of a wedding certificate, verifying the marriage between Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell. The sender was never found, but all of the recipients were grateful.  
  
The obituaries in the paper were short and thoughtful, glossing over the least tasteful parts of the deceased lives, and concentrating on the good, as Obituaries tended to do. The double obituary, however, was briefer than usual:  
  
  
  
Names: Heero and Duo Maxwell-Yuy  
  
Born: Unknown  
  
Former Gundam Pilot Heero Maxwell-Yuy left on October 30, AC 275, of lung cancer. His husband, Duo, followed one day later due to heart failure. However, they are not dead. Some things never die: Life, Love and Death. They were all three.   
  
There was no funeral, as the bodies were somehow lost during the brief drive to the morgue, even though the trucks were locked and there was no feasible way in or out. The perpetrator was never found, and the only clue were single black roses left at each of the sites.  
  
It is true; some things never die. 


End file.
